AdrianWood

Many thanks for the comment guys. Yves the bars are punched and there is a long thread bar running through the punch holes with balls screwed at either end. Will try and get some close up images for you.

Latest project finally installed with the client. The small motif was taken from a detail the client found on their fire place in the dining room. They wanted something simple and not too cluttered. We also installed a 5 metre balcony rail of the same design. will try to upload pics later.

Very impressive!! Love the detail at the top, is it a flower or cone shape? How is that done, (hard to tell from the photo whether it's petals, or..)? Great colour too!

Hi Colleen, i will be making some more soon so i will get some photos of them in stages. hope all is well with you. Are you going to the BABA Agm this year.? It is at phil Johnsons forge in Ratho.

Adrian, if you don't mind me asking. I am new to Smithing. What finnish did you use on the gates?

LeeRoy

The gates were galvanized and sprayed with a high build vinyl paint. about 4 coats i think

The original design came from a booklet on style the clients found in the house. I had to adapt it as the original drawing was of a complete cast gate and very over the top in its design and it also needed to fit in with the clients budget so there were some omissions and one or two additions from myself.

Thanks for the comments guys. The colour is one of my favourites i try to get most of my clients to go for this if possible!

Hi there, just fitted this drive gate last week, it seems to have been in the forge for such a long time, what with the workshop move and all.!! anyway all went well with the fitting and no real hiccups. The client is really pleased and has asked me to make railings and pedestrian gate to match.

Having had swine flu for the past 2 weeks i was quite surpised to actually get some work out! But as the clients were getting desparate and starting to shout louder i had to venture into the forge! I still have to punch the holes for the door knobs and paint the letter plate so will add them later. Anyway was glad to actually get into the forge and do something.

yes there is a hole through the middle for the longer forgings and it needs a 7hp motor. I managed to find one that is a 240 volt but i many need to substitute it for a 440volt one.

Finally took delivery of my Hercules hammer on Friday, after months of getting the workshop sorted (in between trying to get work out!) i am so happy to get it into the shop and start the clean up process. Not that it needs too much cleaning as i think it still has its factory paint on it! there is just a thin layer of green moss on the surfacethat comes of real easy, It has been sat in a shed for over twenty years!! and hasn`t had much in the way of hard work whilst it was in use as there is still grease and oil in the caps. cant wait to get it running! It came with loads of tooling mainly for the production of harrows and tines.

These things do tend to happen for a reason. The gods of Blacksmithing must be favouring you right now!

Hey drako,
I agree with Fe-wood when he says to get a job with someone for a year or so, get as much experience as you can. This way you can also do some of your own work as well as developing your very own style.

This is the way i started. I worked for Brian Russell (uk) for 3 years. In that time i was able to do my own comissions as well( mostly on evenings and weekends,) Brian was amazing in that he encouraged this.

6 years ago i became self employed.
I will not lie to you, things can and have been very difficult, but they have also been very good, feast and famine!

Times are difficult at the moment whatever proffesion you are in, so to attempt to become self employed right now could be difficult unless you have enough money in savings to see you through potential lean times as well as buying all the tools and equipment you will need to do the jobs.

Banks are very reluctant to hand out money now so getting funding this way is also hard. Also, Loans from anyone will need repaying every month and they do not care if you have had a bad month, that money needs to be paid.! So if you can make it without borrowing money that would be better.

You will also need to have in mind that you will also be the secretary, answering the phone, the surveyor, measuring the clients job, the draughtsman, drawing the job, the errand boy, the tea boy,(or coffee boy)! the accountant, the list can go on.

Also, and this is a big ALSO, it will never be a 9-5 job. I am at work most days for 8. sometimes alot earlier depending on how busy i am. I work until i am tired or family comittments dictate i stop, Once home there are drawings and designs to do for clients, paper work and a list of things needed for the next day. I am lucky in that most of my paperwork is passed onto my dad who is now retired and is willing to help out. In short you never seem to stop thinking about your jobs! Even to the point of waking up in the early hours of the morning.

As for getting rich, this all depends on what you want to be rich in.! money possibly not, you can make a comfortable living. But if you expect huge amounts of disposable income then you may be dissapionted!

Rich in life experience, love of your job, the feeling of joy you get when you hand over a job to a client that did not think a project could be done and to such a high standard is pricless. The amazing feeling of waking up in a morning knowing that the day ahead will not be boring, mundane and repetative is something i have had for the 12 years i have been a blacksmith.!

In these things your cup will overflow.
Money is a necessary evil and it can vary from year to year. My best financial year was last year where i had a turnover of 55 thousand pounds. My accountant was very pleased,! I did not feel any richer than i did the previous year on less turnover! But Hey.

It takes a long time to get a business going, at least 5 years, in that time you have to make contacts with local authorities, architects, builders and also private clients that appreciate your skills and talents. Once these are in place you will find that the work will come in on a more regular basis and less sporadic. But you need to constantly remind the people you are trying to impress by sending mailshots, emails, invite them to evenings at you forge where you will demonstrate your talents and invite them to `have a go`, so they can appreciate the work that goes into a job. Don`t let them forget you. give them a business card that they cannot forget!

I hope this has answered some of your questions and has not put you off. I love the life i have, after all it is the only one we are given. Use it. I have always lived my life by the mantra of `its better to regret the things you have done than to regret the things you haven`t done`. Go for it. But get the experience of working for someone else first. learn the craft and everything else will slip into place. All the other stuff you need to do to run a business will be alot easier if you are not getting stressed about learning the craft as you go along by yourself.

Good luck Drako, i wish you all the very best for your future and keep us all informed of your progress and any work you produce.

A very tidy peice of work you have made there. I am sure the client will be thrilled with that. Very nice indeed.

The bench is a lovely peice of work, lovely lines and a beautiful simplicity, keep up the great work. The photography on the hot scroll is fantastic.!

The anvil he has was given to me by a friend who, when clearing his barge, found the anvil being used as balast!
Kai loves the fact that he has his very own anvil and hammer. His teachers at nursery cannot beleive that he works with hot metal. In theses days of health and safety gone crazy its a wonder kids are allowed to to anything at all!!.

How's Peat going to run the school without that building? It's nice to see you've got a good space Adrian. I was sorry not to have met you when I attended one of Peat's courses as I really like your work.

Peat is still running the courses at the musem in a rather smaller lean to building it will be a bit of a squeeze but i am sure things will be ok and the students will benefit fromhis teaching.

Just thought i would share these pictures of my sons first full day in the forge. He is on his summer holidays at the moment and has wanted to come into the workshop for ages now. It was a very proud day and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Days like these are very precious!

It seems the layout table is causing heartache for some of you guys!! rest assured a more suitable layout table is on its way! It will be movable and be able to take apart when not in use as these things do tend to take up alot of room and create dead space around them.
So as space is at a premium (as it is in all workshops big or small) most of my equipment will be movable using industrial castor wheels. Even the flypress table will have wheels eventually.!:D

yes i was. the musem have started to demolish the large building we were in and there was not enough room for both myself and peat to run our business` from just the small forge so i decided to move to a bigger shop

After nearly 6 weeks of moving out of one workshop, finding another, clearing it of 20 years of junk, boarding it out getting it wired in and getting more equipment i have actually managed to do a whole weeks work!
The forge isn`t 100% there yet, still need to get my Hercules power hammer in, but other than that things are almost how i want it. Still finding places for some things to live, but i didn`t realise how much stuff i had collected!
Anyway the important things are in (the kettle) the fire, presses, so it is starting to feel familiar and homely!

thanks for the comments guys, i do feel blessed and i hope the future students will get as much from it as i do. It would be great if you guys could join my facebook group for the clervaux trust site, i posted a link at the top of the page. Hope to see you sometime soon Uri.

very nice fork,stainless as well!! a real sturdy bit of equipment. bet you could get a great chunk of meat on that fella.

yes it is a magical little place and so lovely to work in. All you can hear, apart from when i start hammering!!, is the running river and the wildlife. Eventually we will be replacing the bales with hazel hurdles as the river can sometimes flood so we cannot impead the river in any way. Also i have found it takes a real effort to actually set a bale on fire! so we just have to be mindful when we are forge welding. we may even lime plaster the inside to give it extra fire protection.

so here are some pictures of the new workshop at the site i have been teaching at for nearly four months. The building was built by the students as part of a little construcion project and is only supposed to be temporary! (ish!!)
We have a facebook site called the clervaux trust.
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i think this is the link. please have a look and feel free to join. there is a discription of what we are about but also the future aims. If you do join i will be able to keep you informed of all the future events.
I am also moving my main workshop so i will get some pictures of that as soon as i am settled in.

thanks to all for the comments, NO1 is my fave also, but you never know where councillers will go in deciding?
Nice comment Chrispy! dying to get in! very good.
I will of course keep you all upto date with any progress.
thanks Again